


the art of understanding

by kurosu (akc)



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Dogs, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23950339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akc/pseuds/kurosu
Summary: “I got you a dog,” Ashe says, voice nervous, as if it weren’t obvious from the dog that he’s holding in his arms.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert
Comments: 6
Kudos: 63





	the art of understanding

Dimitri is very, very tired. 

That’s what it looks like to Ashe, at least, and he’s almost certain that his assertion is true. The war may be over—long over, in fact—but Dimitri appears to be just about as tired as he was before. Happier, sure, but definitely not energized in the slightest. 

It’s kind of painful to see, honestly. Dimitri moves around with about as much prowess as an elderly lion; his footsteps are sluggish, eyes are rimmed in a dark grey color, and his voice borders on sounding absolutely exhausted all the time. He’s overworked, no doubt, and it doesn’t seem like that’s changing. 

Ashe has decided that he would like to do something nice for him. 

This isn’t an unusual sentiment. Ashe enjoys doing nice things for the people he cares about, and the care he has for Dimitri is a particular and deep one. It’s something that can hardly be described in words. Ashe would know—he’s tried to do it before in sappy poems and letters. 

Dimitri is like a portrait. He’s a mix of watercolor and gouache on a new canvas; he is thick dried paint that you can run your fingers over and feel and understand. Ashe thinks this about him when they have their rare moments of alone time together, when he can finally kiss him and run his hands along him without worry. These, Ashe thinks, are his favorite moments with Dimitri. 

And, because of his recent increase in busyness, there have been less of these moments. Ashe isn’t a selfish person—the opposite, if anything—but he wants their peaceful time together back. He misses it. 

Which is why he has devised a plan. 

When Ashe and Dimitri and a few others moved from Garreg Mach back to Faerghus, they took—put simply—a pretty substantial amount of the monastary’s cat and dog population along with them. It was partially Felix’s idea, partially backed by Ashe and Dedue, and in the end, agreed upon by Dimitri. 

The unfortunate part of all of this is that the animals are just roaming around the castle now much like they were in Garreg Mach, and are only slightly accepted by the human personnel around them. A lot have inevitably migrated to town, likely sick of being ignored by guards and so on. It’s a little disheartening to see.

Ashe’s plan involves the animals.

He wanted to do something that would kill two birds with one stone: help Dimitri out and help the animals out. He figured that getting Dimitri to adopt a cat or dog would probably pave the road for the rest of the cats and dogs to be more accepted and loved. Right? Right? In his head, it makes sense, and Dedue had said,  _ yes, that makes sense,  _ so it should definitely work in practice.

And if not, at least Dimitri will get something out of it. Ashe can work on adopting out the animals another time.

The good thing is that it wasn’t very hard to pick out a pet. 

There is one particular dog—a beagle with very short, stubby legs—that always seems to be around no matter where Ashe goes. She’s definitely one of the most friendly animals of all the other cats and dogs that they brought along. And Dimitri has interacted with her once or twice, too, which makes her an even better choice.

There are plenty of other friendly cats and dogs—in fact, nearly all of them are generally nice towards humans—but Ashe doesn’t know them as well as he knows the short-legged beagle, and this one has shown a particular proclivity for being around people. And, besides that, he doesn’t think that Dimitri is much of a cat person, so it makes sense for him to have a dog. 

Ashe had taken the liberty of bringing the dog into town to an animal specialist to get her checked out and make sure that she didn’t have any underlying health problems. It cost him a small fortune, but he wanted to make sure just in case. He’ll be able to make the money back eventually anyway.

All that’s left to do now is get the dog to Dimitri. Ashe hasn’t really made a plan for if Dimitri doesn’t want her, so he’s praying with everything that he’s got that won’t happen. If it does—well. Ashe will just keep the dog, he supposes. 

* * *

Ashe has been waiting in one of the lounge rooms for a while now. Dimitri should be around any moment now—he’s never once been late for a meeting between the two of them, and there is no reason to anticipate that this time will be any different. Ashe is simply anxious and arrived ten minutes early. 

The dog is underneath the couch, waiting quietly. For a pet that’s (presumably) never properly lived in a home before, she is remarkably well behaved and well trained. Ashe realizes how big of a commitment taking care of an animal is, but he genuinely believes that her presence will help Dimitri. It’ll give him something to look forward to, something tangible. 

Ashe hopes that his sentiments hold true. He hopes. He doesn’t know what he’ll do if this backfires. 

There’s no time to think about this anymore, though, because the door is suddenly opening up and Dimitri is stepping into the room. Ashe stands, quickly, stepping in front of where the dog lies so that she can’t be seen.

“Hello, Ashe,” Dimitri says, gently shutting the door behind himself. He’s already changed into his nightclothes, which is good. Wouldn’t want to get dog hair on his nice clothes. At least, Ashe supposes that this would be true.

Dimitri crosses the room and wraps his arms around Ashe in a comfortable embrace, joined together by the sound of a crackling fireplace. Today Dimitri smells like the outdoors, Ashe notices, and it’s something he could potentially lose himself in. It’s dangerous how much he’s fallen for him—to think that a few years ago he could hardly look him in the eye without being overcome with nervousness.

Ashe opens his eyes. He hadn’t realized he closed them, which is—well, it’s telling. “Sit down,” he instructs, gesturing to one of the soft chairs off to the side. “And—and close your eyes. Nothing’s going to hurt you, don’t worry.”   
  
He says this just in case. 

“All right,” Dimitri replies, shrugging his shoulders a little bit as he moves to take a seat. He closes his eyes as instructed and places his hands in his lap, gingerly folded together.

Ashe scrambles to pick up the dog. She’s still politely sitting in the spot she was left in. Her tails wags a little bit when Ashe picks her up, and he gives her a couple pats on the head for good measure.

“I, er. I know you’ve been stressed for a while lately,” he starts, standing in place, “so I wanted to do something for you. And—I could potentially be off the mark, here, but I got you something that I thought you’d like. But if you don’t—”   
  
“Ashe,” Dimitri says, holding a hand up. “If it’s a gift from you, I can assure you already that I appreciate it. Can I open my eyes?”

“Ah, one second! Hold on.” Ashe bends down into a squat in front of Dimitri. “Okay, sorry. Open.”

Dimitri opens up his eyes and, almost immediately, they light up with the brightness of a solar flare.

“I got you a dog,” Ashe says, voice nervous, as if it weren’t obvious from the dog that he’s holding in his arms. 

“You got me a dog,” Dimitri echoes, taking the dog from Ashe’s arms and holding her up like he’s been given a gift from the goddess herself. Ashe watches them look at each other for a moment and smiles to himself.

He knew that Dimitri would like her.

“Ashe,” he says, holding the dog close to his chest, “Where did you find—him? Her? Where?”

“It’s a girl,” Ashe replies, voice soft. He takes a seat on Dimitri’s knee and once he moves the dog a little bit higher up, curls up onto his lap. “She’s really friendly. She follows me around a lot, and I’m pretty sure she followed you around at some point.”   
  
“Is she the one who was carrying around a tomato for a few hours last week?”   
  
Ashe laughs. “Yeah! She’s the one. Cute, right?”   
  
“Very cute.” She’s settled right into Dimitri’s arms, like she belongs there. “Can I name her?”   
  
“What? Of course you can name her, she’s your dog.” Another laugh, but it’s more reserved this time. “I specifically didn’t name her so that you could.”

“Oh,” Dimitri breathes, looking down at her. “I—I always thought that if I had a pet, I would name it after someone I’ve lost. But I think that sort of defeats the purpose of it all, don’t you think?”   
  
“Of ‘it all?’”

“Of moving past things. And getting newer, better memories.” Dimitri sighs. “I’d like to name her Tomato.”

“Tomato!” Ashe hadn’t meant to exclaim that, but he feels like it’s sort of a fitting thing to do. “Tomato is a good name. And, honestly—you can move past things in whatever way you want to, okay?”

Dimitri makes a noncommittal sound that’s something along the lines of  _ hmmhmm,  _ which means,  _ I don’t want to talk about this now.  _ Ashe respects this and says nothing else; instead he reaches for Tomato and scratches her on the head. 

“Thank you again,” Dimitri says after they’ve lapsed into a short and comfortable moment of quietness. “This was very thoughtful of you. And I—truthfully, I’ve been thinking of getting a pet for some time now.”   
  
“You have?”   
  
“I have. I’ve just been… too busy to actually get around to doing it.” He smiles. “It all works out. You were worried that it would be too much extra work, weren’t you?”

Ashe breaks their eye contact. “A little bit, yeah.”   
  
“I considered that for a while, too, but I actually think that it’ll do the opposite. Because I don’t look forward to paperwork and what-have-you, but I do look forward to—or I suppose I  _ will  _ look forward to—taking care of Tomato. Does that make sense? It has everything to do with willingness and motivation.”   
  
“Yeah, it makes sense. That’s sort of what I was hoping you would think.” Ashe smiles, teeth and all.

“You read me very well.” Dimitri smiles back. “You always have.”   
  
“I wouldn’t say  _ always, _ ” Ashe mumbles, trying to keep himself humble. “But I… I’ve definitely gotten adept at it.”

“Yes, you definitely have.” He gives Ashe a little pet on the head and lifts Tomato up, holding her directly out in front of himself. “You think Ashe should give himself more credit, don’t you?”

Tomato barks in response, and the two of them laugh together.

Ashe makes a mental note to himself that he is, in fact, very good at reading Dimitri.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter: [here!](https://twitter.com/bloomedvillain)
> 
> originally uploaded for dimiashe week, just a little late.


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